中国生物工程杂志

The illustration of human immune system has been substantially clearer than 20 years ago with the credit of a vast amount of comprehensive studies for decades. In particular, its role in tumor development has attracted unprecedented attention. It has been found that the molecules of the immune system can be utilized very effectively to control cancer development and even cure cancer completely. At the early days, this phenomenon was only sporadically spread in professional circles, but since cancer immunotherapy became the winner of Science’s top ten breakthroughs of the year in 2013, publics have been constantly refreshed by the results of immunotherapy. The climax of this phenomenon is reflected in the 2018 Nobel Prize judges who were unable to hold on their usual cautious and awarded the Medical and Physiology Award to two immunologists in recognition of their discovery of the regulatory mechanism of two important immune molecules, PD-1 and CTLA-4, since antibodies targeting these two molecules show predictable effects in tumor immunotherapy. A further affirmation is that half of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry of the same year was awarded to the inventors of phage-display technology for generation of antibodies. Therefore, immunotherapy has become an important approach of cancer treatment, and it has become an indisputable fact that it is listed as the fourth treatment mode after surgery, radiotherapy and chemotherapy. Tumor immunotherapy can be achieved by biologics or by immune cells. The latter is to modify and expand the relevant immune cells by cell engineering technology, and then infuse the cells to the corresponding patients to enhance the patient’s anti-tumor immunity, and ultimately achieve the purpose of eliminating tumor cells. In this paper, the concepts of T-cell immunotherapy and the current development of its application are briefly described. In addition, the first clinic stage product TAEST16001 and the companion diagnostic kits of Guangdong Xiangxue Life Sciences Ltd., a subsidiary of Xiangxue Group, has been briefly presented.